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Caribbean Islands Government and Politics
The Governmental System
Grenada has been an independent state within the Commonwealth
of Nations since 1974 (see Appendix B). This status has been one of
the few constants during Grenada's somewhat turbulent history since
that date. Although the 1979-83 tenure of the PRG led by Bishop
produced marked changes in the governmental system, the PRG chose
not to break its formal ties with the Commonwealth.
The PRG did revoke the independence Constitution of 1973,
preferring to rule by revolutionary decree (or "people's laws").
This action produced some legal complications, particularly in the
case of the judiciary. After the United States-Caribbean military
intervention of October 1983 that deposed the short-lived
Revolutionary Military Council established by Bernard Coard and
General Hudson Austin of the People's Revolutionary Army (PRA), the
Constitution of 1973 was brought back into force by Governor
General Paul Scoon (see Current Strategic Considerations, ch. 7).
Some judicial provisions established under the PRG were retained,
however, for the sake of continuity and for the facilitation of the
transition to a more representative government.
The 1973 Constitution provides for a parliamentary system of
government on the Westminster model. The theoretical head of state
is the British monarch, whose authority is represented on the
island by a governor general. When an elected Parliament is in
place, the governor general has little real authority and limited
official duties (a role similar to that of the monarch in the
British government). The governor general is not altogether a
figurehead, however, as demonstrated by the events of the 1983-84
period. Scoon assumed constitutional authority in October 1983; he
subsequently appointed the Advisory Council (also known as the
Interim Government) led by Nicholas Braithwaite, which guided
Grenada until parliamentary elections could be held in December
1984.
Even when an elected Parliament is in place, the governor
general retains a degree of latent constitutional authority. For
example, it is the governor general who must dismiss members of
Parliament (for nonattendance or criminal conviction, among other
reasons), even though in practice this action is taken only at the
urging of the prime minister or the leader of the opposition. The
governor general also has the power to declare a state of
emergency, a declaration that has the effect of dissolving
Parliament.
Parliament is the major governmental institution in Grenada. It
is a bicameral legislature, with a lower house referred to as the
House of Representatives and an upper house known as the Senate.
Representation in the House of Representatives is apportioned
according to population. The leader of the party securing the
majority of seats in Parliament is named prime minister by the
governor general. The leader of the party winning the next largest
bloc of seats is named leader of the opposition.
The position of senator is nonelective. The prime minister has
the authority to recommend the appointment of seven senators of his
own choosing, plus an additional three senators who are to be
selected in consultation with "the organizations or interests which
the Prime Minister considers the Senators should be elected to
represent." These "organizations and interests," although not
enumerated in the Constitution, traditionally encompass
agricultural and business groups as well as trade unions. In
addition to the ten senators nominated by the prime minister, the
leader of the opposition is entitled to three nominations of his
own. Thus, total membership of the Senate is thirteen.
According to the 1973 Constitution, Parliament "may make laws
for the peace, order and good government of Grenada." Parliament
has the power to amend the Constitution by a two-thirds vote of
both houses. The Constitution also makes provision for amendment by
referendum. The House of Representatives wields the power of the
purse; so-called money bills (bills dealing with taxation, public
debt, or grants of public funds) may only be introduced in that
chamber. Nonmoney bills may be introduced in either chamber.
Sessions of Parliament must be held at least once each year, with
intervals of no more than six months between the end of the last
sitting of one session and the beginning of the next.
The parliamentary system gives a great deal of power to the
prime minister, who can control the workings of government through
the authority granted the prime minister to call and dissolve
sessions of Parliament. One complaint lodged against Prime Minister
Blaize in the Grenadian press since 1985 has concerned his failure
to call frequent parliamentary sessions. This tactic allows
important governmental matters, e.g., the formulation of the
budget, to be handled exclusively by the cabinet, thus limiting the
input and oversight of Parliament.
The power of the prime minister rests further in the authority
to name a cabinet of ministers who assume responsibility for the
administration of the government in such areas as the prime
minister may designate. The prime minister frequently assumes
direct control over key portfolios or over ministries of particular
personal or political interest. For example, after his party's
electoral victory in December 1984, Prime Minister Blaize took
charge of the ministries of home affairs, security, information,
Carriacou affairs (Blaize is a native of the island of Carriacou),
finance and trade, and industrial development and planning.
The Grenadian judiciary has been the branch of government most
affected by the political events of the post-1979 period. Prior to
the advent of the PRG, Grenada participated in the Eastern
Caribbean States Supreme Court along with Antigua and Barbuda,
Dominica, St. Kitts-Nevis-Anguilla, St. Lucia, and St. Vincent and
the Grenadines as provided for by the West Indies Act of 1967. The
Bishop government severed this association and set up the Grenada
Supreme Court and the Court of Appeal. Magistrate's courts were
retained by the PRG to administer summary jurisdiction.
After the events of October 1983, the status of the courts set
up by the PRG came into question. The legality of their continued
operation was challenged specifically by defense attorneys for
Coard, Austin, and other defendants who were to stand trial for the
October 19, 1983, murder of Bishop and others in Fort Rupert (the
name given to Fort George between 1979 and 1983 in honor of
Bishop's father) in St. George's. The Grenada Supreme Court and the
Court of Appeal considered several such challenges under its civil
jurisdiction, but it rejected them under the doctrine of "state
necessity," thus permitting both the court and the trial to
continue. Meanwhile, the Blaize government formally applied in July
1986 for readmission to the Eastern Caribbean States Supreme Court.
Upon acceptance into this court system, the Grenada Supreme Court
and Court of Appeals will be abolished because cases involving both
original jurisdiction and appeal can be submitted to the regional
court.
The civil service (or public service, as it is known in
Grenada) is professional and generally apolitical, although there
have been instances in Grenada's colonial history when an
entrenched bureaucracy has acted to frustrate the ambitions of a
ruler, e.g., Eric Gairy's conflicts with the bureaucracy during his
brief tenure as the island's chief minister in 1961-62. The civil
service still owes much to its British colonial origins. Its
relative autonomy, once a product of isolation from the mother
country, was legally reinforced by the Constitution of 1973. During
the period of the Constitution's suspension by the PRG, the civil
service was politicized to some degree as the ruling NJM sought to
solidify its control over all aspects of Grenadian life. During the
time the PRG was in power, the civil service lost a great many
experienced employees to emigration. The loss reflected to some
extent the traditionally high levels of outmigration; in the case
of civil servants, however, the motivation was in many cases more
political than economic, expressing the employees' unwillingness to
cooperate or collaborate with the workings of the "revo." The basic
unit of the electoral system is the constituency. For the elections
of 1984, the country was divided into several constituencies (some
constituencies are grouped into parishes, a traditional designation
deriving from the discontinued local government organization). In
the December 1984 elections, fifty-two candidates competed for the
fifteen seats in the House of Representatives. The total number of
registered voters was 48,152; of these, 41,041 (or 85.2 percent)
went to the polls, a reflection of the general enthusiasm for the
return of electoral politics.
Data as of November 1987
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